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These Are The Mujeres Taking Over This Week's 'El Tiny' Concerts

Silvana Estrada, pictured at the 2020 Spotify Awards in Mexico City, is among the artists featured in NPR's "El Tiny" concert series for Hispanic Heritage Month.
Matt Winkelmeyer
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Getty Images for Spotify
Silvana Estrada, pictured at the 2020 Spotify Awards in Mexico City, is among the artists featured in NPR's "El Tiny" concert series for Hispanic Heritage Month.

This week female artists from Venezuela, Mexico and Cuba take over the "El Tiny" Tiny Desk series for Hispanic Heritage Month. The artists also span different genres in the music industry.

Hear more about them in this interview with A Martinez and Alt. Latino's Felix Contreras and read some highlights about their work below.

Listen to the Story

First, there's my favorite artist: Silvana Estrada. She is based out of Mexico City but was raised in Veracruz. There, she grew up listening to Latin American folklore, son jarocho and rancheras, which you can hear traces of in her own music.

She describes herself as "obsessed with words, sound and the beauty of emotions." You should listen to "Te Guardo" and "Sabré Olvidar" with headphones (like you should when you listen to any song for the first time!). Her singing is crisp, just like the production, and the instrumentals that accompany her vulnerable lyrics are the perfect pace and sound.

Next up is maye, who was born in Venezuela and later grew up in Miami. She writes and sings in Spanish and English to slow pop rhythms. Her song "Tú" can best be enjoyed with a glass of red wine and swaying in your kitchen while you cook a meal. And if you have a special someone to sing this song to, that works, too.

Watch maye's Tiny Desk (Home) Concert below:

And finally, from Cuba is Eme Alfonso, who NPR's Alt. Latino host Felix Contreras says is "part of a new generation of musicians throughout Latin America who blur the line between genres and influences." She comes from a family of musicians and was a part of the band Síntesis, which was directed by her parents. Her sound combines Afro-Cuban music with rock and jazz, and it's spirited and soulful.


This story originally appeared in the Morning Edition live blog.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Lilly Quiroz (she/her/ella) is a production assistant for Morning Edition and Up First. She pitches and produces interviews for Morning Edition, and occasionally goes to the dark side to produce the podcast Up First on the overnights.